THE NIGHT STUFF
Uncorking the bubbly on the night scene

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Afterhours Foam Party at Virus is for wading through and wallowing in. The bubble-bath club party has been a Mainland club variation for some years. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

That's how I described Virus Afterhours' wickedly fun Foam Party to the friends who chickened out on joining me for a sampling of the popular late-night party. The event — taking its concept from similar parties that were all the summer rage in club-heavy resort destinations like Ibiza in the early '90s — has been a monthly staple at Virus since March.

Dressed casually in weathered Nikes, an old T-shirt and equally aged jeans, I arrived just as Virus' main room was beginning to swell with bodies and a calf-high carpet of Mr.-Bubble-like suds. A handful of revelers gathered under a ceiling-suspended foam machine — imagine an industrial-size carpet dryer, with a waterfall of suds pouring out of its maw instead of hot air — showering in the strangely dry, fruity-smelling stuff, and running it through their hair and over their bodies like soap.

The smell? A funky olfactory brew reminiscent of Juicy Fruit, cigarette smoke and sweat. Yum!

The crowd in the main room swelled to about 250 between 2 and 3 a.m., generating a warm and slightly sticky biosphere.

Still not ready to dive into the bath a half-hour after arriving, I joined about a dozen or so others on a spacious riser overlooking the dance- floor activities.

It was a well-behaved melee. Couples were tossing and rubbing suds playfully in each other's faces. A guy crafted himself a Cleopatra Jones foam afro, and two dudes were flat on the floor making suds angels.

I was well above the more soggy lower layers of foam and a sloshy (though nonslip) floor, but close enough to the ceiling to have my pupils occasionally blasted by bursts of green laser light from across the room.

"This must be what basketball players feel like," shouted a shirtless guy next to me, excitedly taking it all in. Uh-huh.

A skilled rotation of Afterhours turntablists maintained a superb sonic cycle whose beats rose, climaxed, dropped and rose again in conjunction with the foam machine's output.

Near 3 a.m., a couple of well-soaked, bikini-topped and T-shirted females and their shirtless male companion tossed a generous armful of suds on my cranium as I scribbled in my notebook.

"Sorry," one of them offered — only half-seriously — before another hurled another large dollop of bubbles directly at my face. I scraped what I could off and threw it back. Soon enough, I was gathering up suds from around my knees to launch at them before they could hit me.

By then covered and wading up to my thighs in the stuff, how could I avoid actually showering in it? After waiting my turn with about a dozen others surrounding the cascade of suds pouring out of the foam machine, I dove in directly under the downpour. The effect was like a dry shower of sea foam — first slightly cold, then warm to the touch. I was soon having so much fun that I camped out on the dance floor and under the foam machine with the other devotees until the end of the trance set, a half-hour later.

A few handy sidewalk sprinklers cleaned off the suds still clinging stubbornly to my jeans and sneaks as I walked to my car.

The Virus Afterhours Foam Party seems less concerned with being the trendiest late-night place to be seen in than with trying to instill a welcome breath of fresh air and fun on the Honolulu club scene. With its well-mannered yet freakishly amped-up crowd, it offered up the most genuine, uncomplicated fun I'd had at a nightclub for quite some time.

Got a night spot or club event we should check out? Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.

What: Afterhours Foam Party

Where: Virus Entertainment Center, 1687 Kapi'olani Blvd., 591-3500

When: Midnight Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday (last Saturday night of the month)

Cover: $10

Under 21 OK?: Yes.

Age of crowd: Teens to late 20s

Dress code: None

Attire I saw: Extremely casual for both sexes: T-shirts, tank tops, swim and board shorts, bikini tops, jeans, track pants, sneakers, slippers, baseball caps, skull caps

My arrival/departure: 1:30 a.m./3:45 a.m.

What I drank: Arrowhead bottled water ($3 each)

Peak crowd while there: About 300

Queue?: No.

Sample music: house, trance, drum 'n' bass

Dancing?: Yes.

Tip: Suds are nonallergenic and will not damage most clothing, but wear something comfortable and old.